Moving through the corridor, the emergency lighting was just enough to make out shapes of broken equipment and a few mangled Romulans. When they arrived, Huff 'n Puff and Sage took point, one scanning the door, the other preparing a chemical charge. "Curie, what's waiting for us on the other side?" Starfield inquired. Huff 'n Puff's muscular frame turned to reach into his bag and retrieved a magnetic anchor for the charge. He carefully pried the thin metal trim around the door. "Top left is where the locking bolt is. Get ready to take cover."

Meanwhile, Curie was adjusting her tricorder to scan beyond the door when she went rigid. "Sir, abort the charge!" Starfield put his hand up, halting his previous orders.

"Temperature and pressure on the other side indicates plasma fire."

"Disengage, Sage. Find us another way up, even if we have to go EVA." The team retreated toward the mooring room with Tac taking the rear position. Sage used her wrist-mounted display to pull up the schematic of the ship.

"We have another way up. About twelve meters back, the main cooling duct runs from here to the upper decks. Tight squeeze, but I think we can make it."

"Good. Everyone, prep for EVA, set gravity boots at .5," Starfield ordered. "Pair up and sound off when you've checked seals and O2 flow." One by one, the team sounded off. Huff 'n Puff cracked the seal on the vertical duct. "Pressure is stable here, but there's an isolation door twenty meters up."

"Ok, let's get to it." The stack made their way with careful purpose into the duct. As they approached the door, Curie began scanning beyond the isolation barrier. "We have hard vacuum on the other side."

"Copy. Everyone, grav-boots at .75, brace for decompression. Huff 'n Puff, crack the seal and let the air out."

"Finally," he joked as he braced himself and slowly spun the manual release lever. The door separated, and the hiss of escaping atmosphere became a roar. Condensation turned to frost on their visors, and everyone's ears popped.

"Pressure 45kPa and falling!" Curie reported.

"Hold tight," Starfield said, holding himself in place.

"Pressure at 20.... 13...….5...and...... We have equalized!" The only sound now was of heavy breathing as the team climbed out of the vent shaft and onto the deck. This space, likely an office or lab, was laid open the nothing of space, the entire forward bulkhead and hull still attached by load bearing frames had partially pealed away.

Suddenly, a violent tremor shuddered through the entire framework of the warbird. A massive section of the outer hull buckled under the immense structural stress, fracturing and sending a dense cloud of razor-sharp duranium fragments and frozen water shards cascading toward them.

"Incoming debris!" Eyes shouted, flattening himself against a structural recess. "Fast-moving, multi-vector trajectory! We have no overhead cover!"

"Everyone brace for debris!" Khalil ordered. "Science, tactical, what do we have?"

"Bracing!" Tac barked, dropping to one knee. "Sir, wide-dispersion phaser fire can vaporize the micro-fragments, but there are three heavy structural frames—looks like internal support frames—that are too dense to blow apart! They are tracking straight down toward us!"

Splinters of metal pinged off conduit, leaving deep scores in the metal as the three massive structural ribs hurtled out of the blackness, tumbling end-over-end. Huff 'n Puff checked his tactical harness "Starfield, a kinetic charge can redirect the trajectory of those frame sections away, but I need to break rank and step out into the open to get a clear line of sight!"

"Do it, Breach," Khalil commanded. "Even if we can't destroy it, we can redirect it!"

"Acknowledged!" Huffn'Puff shouted. Disengaging his mag-boots, he lunged outward into the open, using his suit’s maneuvering thrusters to slide horizontally. Breach unslung the heavy charge and hurled it directly into the path of the tumbling debris.

The charge detonated. An intense, blinding pulse of blue and force rippled through the void, violently jarring the first frame several meters above the team. The heavy rib now moved away from the team

"Direct hit! Trajectory altered!" Curie reported. the second frame section slammed into the deck behind Huffn'Puff and the force smashing through the deck catapulted him off the deck into the void "Shit, My tether snapped! Suit thrusters are offline!" Huffn’s voice cracked over the comms with programmed panic. "I'm drifting!"

"I have a lock on him!" Eyes instantly barked, stepping to the edge of the broken deck with a magnetic grapple launcher. "

"You're not getting off that easy, Mr Puff," Khalil ordered. "Eyes, grappler!"

"Line away!" Eyes shouted. The grapple launched with a silent puff of compressed gas, tracking straight through the darkness until the magnetic head locked firmly onto Breach’s backpack. "I've got a secure hook!" Eyes reported, planting his feet back onto the hull and slamming the winch lock.